大凡人類,，無論幾個月大的嬰兒，還是幾十歲的成年人,，都對蛇極端敏感,。把花和蛇放在一起，人類總是先看到蛇,。按照科學(xué)家的觀點,，蛇對人類構(gòu)成威脅，人類為了生存而進(jìn)化出了先對蛇有反應(yīng)的視覺能力,。那么,，人類是怎么從小就能識別出蛇的呢？
科學(xué)家的最新研究發(fā)現(xiàn),，在識別蛇這一問題上,，兒童與成年人可能還存在區(qū)別。對兒童來說,，色覺可能發(fā)揮了相當(dāng)重要的作用,，蛇的鮮艷外表加快了兒童的反應(yīng)速度。而對成年人來說,，識別蛇主要靠辨別它的形狀特征,，顏色特征已不再重要。
位于日本愛知縣犬山市的京都大學(xué)靈長類研究所的一個研究小組最近對111名4至6歲的兒童進(jìn)行了實驗,。他們讓這些孩子觀看8張各種鮮花和1張蛇的照片,，這9張照片在觸摸屏上以縱橫各3張的形式排列,，照片分黑白和彩色兩組，然后讓兒童迅速尋找其中蛇的照片,。
研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn),，兒童在彩色照片上花費(fèi)的時間均比起黑白照片要快0.1到0.2秒。這與成年人有很大不同,。此前多個研究表明,，無論照片是彩色還是黑白，成年人所花的時間沒有差別,。
這項研究已發(fā)表在新一期英國學(xué)術(shù)刊物《科學(xué)報告》（Scientific Reports）上,。正高信男指出，人類和類人猿等高級靈長類色覺非常發(fā)達(dá),，這幫助他們在幼兒時期就能迅速發(fā)現(xiàn)蛇,，這并非偶然，而是為了保護(hù)自身而出現(xiàn)進(jìn)化的結(jié)果,，發(fā)達(dá)的色覺也成功地提高了人類祖先的生存能力,。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
doi:10.1038/srep00080
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The influence of color on snake detection in visual search in human children
S. Hayakawa; N. Kawai; N. Masataka
It is well known that adult humans detect snakes as targets more quickly than flowers as the targets and that how rapidly they detect a snake picture does not differ whether the images are in color or gray-scale, whereas they find a flower picture more rapidly when the images are in color than when the images are gray-scale. In the present study, a total of 111 children were presented with 3-by-3 matrices of images of snakes and flowers in either color or gray-scale displays. Unlike the adults reported on previously, the present participants responded to the target faster when it was in color than when it was gray-scale, whether the target was a snake or a flower, regardless of their age. When detecting snakes, human children appear to selectively attend to their color, which would contribute to the detection being more rapidly at the expense of its precision.
